Danger Zone
by Rexcaliburr
Summary: Several months after Gray Industries fell, the mercenaries of Mann Co have returned to their normal lives in the forts. As it storms, Makina and Medibot go back to the ruins of the old factory to find some documents and discover the massive chambers and dirty secrets below Gray Industries - by accident. Sequel to Resurrection.
1. Chapter 1

_Skritch. Skritch. Skriiiiiitch. _

The idle bot was vaguely aware of the sound of pencil against paper. It was the only sound in the silent workshop, aside from the distant crash of thunder and the spray of rain outside. It had been several months since the two had successfully escape Gray's clutch and come to Mann Co. Administrator wasn't the kindest person, but she didn't bother them much.

Those past few months spent at Mann Co hadn't been particularly exciting though. They were safe, sure, but there wasn't much to do. They weren't allowed to participate in battles and only allowed out of base during ceasefire. And despite the current ceasefire they could't leave BLU due to the heavy storm that had lasted a few days already.

The distant sound of rain against the roof of the base got louder as the workshop door opened and Engineer stepped inside with a box of robot scraps. Things from the older days where the bots would come and try to kill them. Makina slipped out of idle mode as he came in, getting up from his seat to make space for Engineer's box. His optics brightened once again as a signal he was active.

"Much obliged, pardner," Engineer said. Makina just tipped his hat and silently left the room, leaving Medibot to continue is sketching and Engineer to do whatever with his box of parts. He began to wander along the BLU base, his metal legs making small clops as they hit the wooden floor.

It was really storming outside. Initially when the rain first started three days ago it had been a blessing. The land was really starting to dry up and the heat was getting ridiculous. But now that a storm had gone on for days, it was starting to get slightly worrying. Engineer had predicted a flood, though he said it wouldn't happen so soon.

Makina found himself in front of the door that led to Medic's office. He placed his palm against the door, considering going in. There wasn't a real reason, but if Horst was awake there would be something to do. He pushed the door open, not immediately seeing the doctor.

After a little wandering he found the doctor, curled up in a corner of his office with his cat on his lap, and both of them sleeping. Makina stared at them for a bit before making his way for the desk. He plonked himself down in Horst's chair and just waited. An eventually, slipped back into idle mode.

…

Horst stirred. He shifted himself, cracking open an eye. Schnaps had long since left his lap, leaving behind small strands of stray fur on his shirt. He shifted again, suddenly regretting allowing himself to sleep in a corner. He grabbed at the cabinet and hauled himself to his feet, hissing at his stiff back.

Upon seeing the bot at his desk idling away he grabbed at the nearest item to use as a weapon, which in his case was Schnap's food bowl. He set it down with a sigh as he remembered Makina was a friend and staying over at BLU. He approached the bot, who immediately turned active again upon sensing movement.

"_You know, you'd be dead by now if I wasn't friendly," _Makina said.

"Just vhat are you doing in here?"

"_Oh, just idling in your chair is all."_

Horst stared at him for a bit before sighing, leaving Makina in his seat. "Vhat time is it?"

Makina shrugged. He didn't have an internal clock or anything. Time was irrelevant to him. _"No idea. I'd probably be able to tell you by looking out the window if it hasn't been pitch black for the past few days."_

Horst yawned. "I'm going to get coffee." It could have been evening but he was getting coffee anyway. He had a feeling he would be awake for the next few hours at the very least. He left the bot to himself and returned several minutes later with a mug of steaming hot coffee.

"_Medic, what do I do with this… thing?" _Makina asked. Schnaps had found her place across the bot's lap, and clearly Makina had never come across something like a cat. What did it do? Was it trying to kill him? It didn't seem to be doing anything suspicious, but it clearly didn't want to leave.

Horst sighed. "It's a cat, Herr." He set down his coffee and slipped his hands under Schnap's furry belly, lifting her up. She protested and scrabbled, trying to grip onto the bot's leg and stay put. When Horst managed to get her off, several light scratch marks were left behind on the metal plating.

The doctor dragged up a chair since Makina obviously wasn't going to move. He needed to stop spending nights sleeping in his office and go back to his room or something. Sipping his coffee, he fixed his eyes on the bot.

"Tell me, bitte. Vhat vas it like working vith Gray?"

"_Do you have to know?"_

"Vell I vould definitely like to get an answer or get my chair back."

The bot chose to give an answer instead. He imitated a sigh. _"It's just following orders day in day out. When I'm needed, I do whatever he asks me to do, which is mostly scoping out things, scouting around. When I'm not needed, I just hang around Medibot's office, get repairs or just go idle in some corner of the facility. It's the same thing every day. Things got interesting after you and Pyro showed up."_

Horst nodded in vague interest. "Maybe you should go back some time and, I don't know, go through the entire facility once again," he mused.

Makina got up, his movements not as fluid as he'd like them to be. _"I'm going to pass on that. I don't need to go back to Hell." _With that, the old Sniperbot left the room, deciding he'd go elsewhere. Somewhere where the topic of Gray Industries wouldn't be brought up.

He continued to wander around the base, the rhythm of the storm outside creating some sort of beat to follow. As he stepped into the lobby, he found Saxton Hale standing there, wringing water out of his hat. He was dripping wet as well, but he clearly didn't care. _"Hale…?"_

Saxton Hale grabbed Makina and pinned him against the wall, rearing back a fist. He released the bot only when he remembered he'd hired the bot to work for Mann Co. "Hello, you piece of scrap metal!"

"_Hale, I'm 'scrap metal' that you hired," _Makina reminded.

"Doesn't matter! You're just the man I'm looking for. Listen, I need you to do me a favour. I'd do it myself but I got hippies to beat up in the rain." Makina noticed his knuckles were slightly reddish. Before he could speak, Saxton Hale continued on. "I need you to go back to Gray Industries and retrieve some documents that belonged to Mann Co-"

"_Not a chance, Hale. I'm not going back," _the bot interrupted. His optic lenses darkened, clearly opposed to the idea. Saxton Hale laughed.

"Oh you sure are! I'll break your pathetic arms off if you don't, and this time, I won't return them to you. I'll make a hat out of them! And sell them to the mercs!" Makina hissed. He wanted to keep his arms.

"_Fine. I don't know what documents you want because Gray has never owned any documents on Mann Co and I think you're nuts, but just so you don't break my arms off, I'll go," _Makina said. Saxton Hale grinned, and slapped him across the back.

The bot went sprawling across the floor, one arm going loose and flying right off its socket. Great. Irritated, he got up, grabbed his arm, and left Saxton Hale to go back out into the heavy rain and continue beating up hippies.

Great, so he had no choice but to go back to Gray Industries now. A metallic sigh escaped his lips as he dragged himself back to Engineer's workshop where Medibot could fix his arm. Again. Already it had happened once in the city several hours away from Mann Co. Dammit, he was getting old. He needed some more upgrades.

With his only attached arm, he pushed open the door of the workshop. Medibot greeted him, before sighing at the sight of his detached arm.

"_Ve're you fighting vith someone again?" _Medibot asked, rolling form his place to come up to Makina. He took the arm and fiddled with the wires, gesturing to the workbench for Makina to sit.

"_I don't pick fights with others, Medibot. Hale decided to show up and make me go back to GI to pick up some documents or something. I don't want to go, but it doesn't seem like I have a choice here. He's threatened to rip off my other arm and make a hat out of it and frankly speaking I think I'd like to keep my hands," _Makina explained. Hale had a way with negotiating. It was more of threatening, but it was useful nonetheless.

Medibot fell silent as he reattached Makina's arm to his shoulder and fixed up the wires again so that it could function. _"I'm not keen on going either, Herr. But I'm not letting you go alone. I suppose I can collect some robot parts vhile I'm zhere for Herr Engineer." _Medibot didn't add in the part about him not trusting Makina on his own, sorely because he knew Makina could be touchy about those things.

He tightened the last screw and rolled back, letting Makina stand up. The Sniper rolled his shoulder to make sure it worked, tipping his hat to Medibot. _"Thanks, mate. I'll be outside if you need me." _He left the workshop again, the door swinging shut behind him.

Makina turned down the hall away from the workshop and into the living quarters, finding his human counterpart making coffee in the kitchen. _"Hello, Sniper."_

The cranky Sniper twisted his head around to look at Makina. "Oh, hi. Wot're ya doin' here?" He asked. He poured the steaming coffee into his mug and slid into a chair at the table, glancing up at Makina. He wasn't too happy about having to stay at the base since it was storming really bad outside, too badly to be able to stay in his camper van.

"_About to ask something of you, Sniper." _Sniper raised his head curiously. _"I'd like you to drive me and Medibot to the GI Factory."_

Sniper sat back in his chair. "Oi don't have a clue as ta why ya wanna go back there. Oi thought you were all 'I ain't ever goin' back' or somethin'," he mused, swirling the brown liquid in his cup.

"_Plans change. I'm don't exactly get a choice on this. Hale's threatening to make a hat out of my arms," _Makina explained. A stony silence ensued between the two of them, only broken by the thunderous rain hitting all surfaces of the base.

"Oi suppose I could, but only when the rain gets lighter. I ain't drivin' out ta GI in the middle of a storm loike this," Sniper agreed. It would be something to do, at least. Makina nodded to Sniper, and left the room to return to the workshop where he would power down for the rest of the night.

…

Thunder crashed outside RED, and a light mist sprayed in from the sniper platform, making the walkway outside wet. Everyone inside was dry, holed up in forts made out of cushions. Engineer was in the kitchen making hot chocolate for everyone while Soldier kept trying to steal cushions from Medic's fort while the doctor threatened to shoot him with a syringe if he took a cushion.

It was times like these that the team, the dysfunctional, weird team was one. Normally on the field it was a team thing as well, but they weren't really together. It was more of every man doing what they had to do.

Scout crept forward from the fort he shared with Soldier and Demoman, reaching out for a pillow from Medic's fort when the doctor flipped out his syringe gun and pointed it at the young scrapper. With a yelp, he retreated back to his fort. For an old doctor, he was very good at protecting his fort.

Engineer took the tray of mugs, each cup unique with its own design that distinguished who's was who's, and brought it over to the mercenaries in their forts. He handed out each cup to everyone before returning to the table where the team's Pyro sat, playing with a small ball of fire. Only Spy wasn't in the room. He had never been one for social interaction.

"Thanks," Axel said, taking his cup from Engineer. The Texan slid into the seat next to the Pyro, about to say something when lightning flashed and the base plunged into darkness.

"Whoa-!" Scout yelled. Axel sighed, producing several small dragons of light and sending them to fly around and sit somewhere as a light source. They clung everywhere - the table, chairs, the cushion forts, the fridge, on the edge of cups, letting off their beautiful little orange glow.

Scout suddenly scrambled out of the fort and over to Axel. "Hey Axe," he said, eagerly staring at him.

The Pyro lazily looked up. "Mm, whaddya want?"

"Tell us about the time you were trapped with that weird old man and his robots!"

Axel considered denying Scout his request, but sighed anyway. "Okay, fine."

As he spoke, the team lapsed into silence. Soldier occasionally interrupted with his input on how un-American and stupid Gray was, only to be hushed by Scout as the scrapper eagerly listened to the story. Axel ended with the team in awe of his experience, not realizing that at the corner of the room, an invisible man stood.

Quietly, Spy left his corner, still cloaked. Oh, Pyro just had to tell the story and remind him of the one person in the world he had loved. He had failed to protect his son and watched him die in front of his eyes. How he wanted to stab something right now. Quickly, he retreated to his room where he could uncloak, sit down, and try to clear his head in full privacy.


	2. Chapter 2

Axel was curled up under a pile of blankets, his legs tucked into his chest and his head buried under his arms. Oh boy, the storm had brought some very cold nights and early mornings. It could have been any time between 2am and 9am and he wouldn't know with the black clouds outside hiding the true colour of the sky.

A sudden shudder came over him and the Pyro sat up, throwing the blankets aside. There was an odd presence in the room, something that didn't feel quite right. His bright blue eyes darted around the room, looking at everything in the room. Nothing had shifted since last night, but there was still an air of eerieness.

He was just getting out of bed when time seemed to slow down. His movements, he knew, were very much slower than they should have been, rendering him unable to leave his bed to check the room. It lasted for a good ten seconds, and when time got back to normal, the presence was but a lingering feel.

"Shit. What the hell?" Axel had never experienced such a thing before, but it sure as hell wasn't normal. Unable to sleep now, the Pyro lit himself a tiny dragon and it followed him out of the room. Axel couldn't help but feel goosebumps rising on his skin as he took a blanket out of the room with him to shelter himself from the cold.

Damn, what had that been? Maybe it was some new system Administrator had installed in the base, but why? How was that even necessary? He needed to talk to someone about it, but at that point no one else in RED was awake except for the little dragon that floated beside him.

With a sigh, he turned on the kettle. He knew he couldn't sleep any more, so he might as well wake himself up properly with a cup of coffee. While the water was boiling, he reached up for the tin of coffee powder. It belonged to Sniper, but the Aussie never minded when others used his coffee. It was Spy and his premium coffee he never let use.

The little dragon had clung onto the kettle, when it noticed something and took off, soaring out to the stairs and heading downstairs. _Odd, _Axel thought. The kettle began to whistle and Axel turned it off, pouring it into his crimson mug. As he stirred it, he heard an odd metallic noise, like footsteps.

Almost instantly he recognized it to be Makina. Medibot didn't have legs so he didn't make those kind of noises. Sure enough, the little light dragon came flying back into the room, Makina in tow.

"Hi Makina," Axel yawned, setting his coffee cup on the table. Makina took the seat opposite him, his body dripping wet. Water droplets slid off his metal casing and he sighed.

"_Hello, Pyro. It's not very fun walking in the rain, is it?" _Makina snorted. Axel sighed and got up, pulling a towel from the rack. He tossed it at Makina.

"Clean yourself up, or Medic's gonna kill me for letting you leave water everywhere," Axel said. He slid back into his seat, taking a sip of the coffee. "So, why'd you come all the way here in the rain?"

"_I got bored. BLU's not much fun and I can kind of tell you guys were having some sort of party last night," _Makina noted. Cushions were still strewn across the floor, unclaimed by their rightful owners. It was total evidence that they had indeed been having fun.

Axel stared into his cup, swirling the coffee around a bit. He considered not telling Makina about his odd experience from earlier, but he felt the need to tell someone. "Have you ever had the experience of uh, time slowing down?" He asked.

The bot curiously watched him, his mind working at the question. _"Well yes. Like when I was sitting in the workshop and doing absolutely nothing." _

Axel shook his head, slightly frustrated. "No, I mean literally. I had this weird feeling this morning when I woke up and there was some kind of presence in my room. When I tried to get out of bed time literally slowed down. That's certainly not normal, unless the Admin is playing some fucked up joke on us but I doubt she has that kind of time."

Makina shrugged. _"I don't know, Pyro. It's not something I know of." _He lapsed into silence for a bit, before continuing. _"Hale came to look for me yesterday."_

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Saxton Hale?"

The bot nodded. _"Yeah, he's making me go back to GI and take something that apparently belongs to Mann Co. Now I've been at GI for a damn long time and I've never seen anything Mann Co related except a bunch of maps on entrance points for the bots, and I doubt Hale is really interested in some maps. He's got a few himself, I'm sure of it."_

"Did he say what he wants you to get?"

"_That's the thing, all he said was some documents. At the very least he could be a bit more specifi- HURRK!" _A large arm grabbed the bot around his neck and yanked him back, nearly throwing the bot off his chair. Axel leapt up and pried Soldier's arm away from the bot while someone snorted from behind. The Pyro twisted his head around to check, seeing Medic scoffing and making himself coffee too.

"Guten Morgen, Herr Pyro," Medic greeted. He was in a loose, plain shirt with his unbuttoned lab coat draped over his shoulders. At that point Soldier had let go of Makina, his night cap over his eyes. No wonder he couldn't tell the difference between Makina and some other hostile bot. "Vhy are you up so early, Herr?"

Instead of answering the question, Axel posed a question back. "Did any of you experience a slowdown in time earlier? Like, 15 minutes ago?" Soldier and Medic shared a look, unsure of what Axel was talking about. Medic raised an eyebrow.

"No, I haven't. Are you sure you aren't delusional from lack of sleep?" The doctor asked. Axel put his head on the table.

"At this point, Medic, I'm not sure if I'm going mad, personally. I might be. Too much time spent in Mann Co does this to you." He sighed. Soldier and Medic took their seats at the table, Soldier seeming to fall asleep at his place.

Medic took a drink from his mug, printed with a picture of his dove, Archimedes, on it. "Veather's been very bad zhese last few days," he mused. Axel nodded in agreement, and as if God was listening, lightning struck and thunder raged overhead. "It seems like it vill last anozher few days."

Soldier raised his head. "Flood's coming," the patriotic man said. Medic raised an eyebrow.

"And how do you knew zhat?"

"I am American, and this is American territory! I know all about the weather patterns and believe me, crouton, there is a flood coming!"

Medic snorted and Axel shook his head. A flood? That was just rather extreme, despite the weather conditions. It wasn't possible. Or if one happened, it'd probably be very minor. Their attention was drawn to Makina as he stood up. _"I'm going back to BLU," _he said.

Axel untied his scarf from his neck and extended it to the bot. Along with it the little dragon from earlier floated towards Makina. "Take it. I won't be needing it here," he said. Makina stared at the offered scarf and took it, wrapping it around his own neck. Silently, the bot, guided by Axel's small dragon, left the base and went back out into the rain.

…

Medibot was idling around the living quarters, when he noticed a tiny glow amidst the rain. He started up his systems again and turned to the window, droplets of water blocking a clear view. Sure enough, Makina was just barely visible through the rain, making his way back to the BLU base. _You dummkopf._

Turning from the window, Medibot made his way down the base to meet Makina at the entrance. As he rolled into the lobby, the soaked bot stepped into shelter, flicking drops of water from his person.

"_See, zhis is exactly vhy I don't trust you in a place like Gray Industries on your own. You know not to valk in zhe rain and zhere you go." _He noticed the red scarf around Makina's neck but didn't say anything. Makina sighed, but he didn't argue with Medibot. Instead, he decided to tell Medibot of Axel's odd experience.

He brushed past Medibot, leaving the bot to follow him back into the base. _"Pyro's had some weird experiences. He was telling me of some kind of being, some supernatural being that can slow down time. It doesn't sound like anything possible but I like to consider my options. Things like that don't just happen," _he mused.

Medibot considered what Makina had said. While he had never been one to delve into supernatural things, the possibilities of it did interest him. _"I'll consider zhat. For now ve should probably pack up and get ready to leave. I'm avare you asked Herr Sniper to drive?"_

The two bots lapsed into silence as they began to pack up whatever was needed to bring to Gray Industries. Makina didn't have much to bring anyway, say for his sniper rifle, a gun and his kukri. Medibot had taken a spare Medigun, some torches and extra batteries. There probably wasn't electricity in the factory area, seeing as the entire floor was destroyed.

Once they were done, they sat in silence, the BLU team slowly waking up. With nothing to do, Medibot did several extra upgrades on Makina and ensured his arm wouldn't pop right off his shoulder. They didn't need that kind of issue while sifting through rubble and debris.

Just over an hour later, Sniper was up. He grunted his greeting to the two bots, assuming they were ready. As Sniper had his morning coffee, Medibot finished up the last upgrade. The rain outside had lightened up a bit, allowing the RED fort to be seen from across. That was an improvement from the last few days.

"Wait here. Oi'll drive the van ta the base." Sniper left them waiting as he ran out into he rain, quickly sliding into his van. He pulled the door shut and drove the van over while flicking water from his hat.

Makina loaded their things into the back where Medibot sat while he himself sat up front with Sniper. Once they were settled, Sniper started up the engine and was driving away form Teufort to the barren, destroyed land where whatever was left of Gray Industries stood.

There was a stony silence hanging in the van, broken when Sniper decided to talk. "Ya ever heard of Freaks?"

"_Of… of what?"_

"Freaks. They're loike us mercs, but a bloody lot more fucked up. Ya never come across one?"

Makina shook his head.

"Well, they resemble us mercs, they have classes loike us, but they tend ta have these supernatural powers of some sort. The ones we tend ta see most often are Vagineers, and some bloke called Christian Brutal Sniper. I warn ya, they're really messed up. Ya probably can tell who's a Freak if ya run across one. They have a love fer killin'. And without reason, too. Some are pretty okay and neutral, friendly even, but the ones we tend ta come across are out for our skins. So watch yerself, yeah?"

As Sniper described these apparent 'Freaks', Makina's mind wandered to the story Axel had told him. Was that a freak? He was left to his thoughts til Sniper stopped the van at a shelter just in walking distance of Gray Industries.

"Oi'm not driving ya all th' way in. Be safe," He said. Makina nodded.

"_You too." _He climbed out of the van, helping Medibot load the things they had brought with them out of the van. He sling his rifle across his back and helped to carry the spare Medigun. Once they had all their things, Sniper drove his van away, the two bots watching it disappear into the rain.

"_Well. We're on our own now," _Makina mused. He turned to look at the ruined building that stood before them. Walls were crumbling, windows were smashed, and deep inside him, Makina got a cold, cold feeling that something was very wrong with that place.


	3. Chapter 3

An odd splashing noise accompanied the patter of rain against the office windows. Curious, Horst sat up, is eyes wandering around the room. What was that? He noticed Schnaps come in, her paws following the rhythm of the splashing noise, and little paw print shaped marks of water left behind on the smooth floor.

The doctor sighed, getting up from his chair. He scooped Schnaps up into his arms, settling her into his lap as he cleaned up her paws. "Vhy are you wet?" He asked. Schnaps gave a sort of _How should I know? _look and wriggled in his grip. Once her paws were dry, he set her down on the floor and she instantly shot off to hide somewhere else.

Horst left the office, deciding to go check on the weird splashing noise. The base was perfectly normal as he wandered around, checking the kitchen, the living area, the resupply room, it was all normal. He followed the source of the sound and it led him to the stair case leading down to the sewer.

He gasped, shocked to see the water in the sewer had risen and covered the staircase already. Was the rain that bad that the sewers would flood? Experimentally, he pulled up the legs of his pants and stepped into the water to see how deep it was on the stairs platform. It reached just past his ankles,, sloshing past his boots. Damn.

He peered into the sewer canal. It was completely flood, leaving only small pockets of air right at the top of the sewer. Dismayed, Horst scrambled back up the stairs, flicking water off his boots like Schnaps had flicked water off her paws earlier.

Should he warn someone? Yep. But who was around to tell? Or more like, who actually cared? It was just nice he came across Engineer who had just come out of the bathroom. "Howdy doc," the Texan greeted, as Horst approached him.

"Hello Herr. Uhm, did anyone tell you about a flood?" Horst asked, raising an eyebrow. Engineer shrugged, but the doctor could see his eyebrows raise in curiousity.

"A flood, huh? No, no one told me about one but it can't be that bad right? I mean, we got the giant sewer area and all."

"Vell zhat's the zhing. Our sewer's flooded."

"Our sewer's what?"

Horst brought the Engineer down to take a look, the man wading into the water. "Damn, you're right. Something must be blocking the drainage outside. If the rain subsides in a few days the water should go down with it too. If not… then we got a problem on our hands." Engineer left Horst's side and backed out of the sewers to take a look at how heavy to rain was. "Yeah, I doubt the rain's gonna subside unless by some miracle it does. The base itself might flood, but I don't say by too much."

"Vell at least my office is upstairs. I hope your stuff doesn't get vet," He mused, brushing past Engineer to head back up. He returned to his office and closed the door, quickly settling back into his chair. From the window behind, a small dragon hovered outside, trying to attract the doctor's attention so that he would let it in.

Schnaps noticed the little spot of light outside, and instantly began to chatter, trilling and fixating her eyes on the window. Horst sighed. What did she want now? He followed her line of sight to the window and got off his chair again, pulling open the window. He was greeted with a strong gust of wind and the spray of water as the little dragon, holding a glass bottle in its tiny grip. It dropped the bottle onto the table and clambered into the desk lamp, clinging onto the warm bulb.

Horst ran a hand through his hair, messing it up even more as he slid back into his seat. He reached out for the bottle and opened it, shaking the slip of paper inside out. Carefully, he unrolled it, feeling around for his glasses as he quickly scanned the small handwriting. He caught his glasses right before they fell off the table and slipped them on.

_Hey doc. RED's completely flooded and we still have no electricity since last night. Like, water's starting to rise from the sewers and I think it's gonna come into our base soon. Did Makina reach back last night?_

_-Axel_

Makina. No, he hadn't seen the bot since he had left the office. He grabbed the first pen he could get and flipped the paper over, scrawling back a reply.

_We're expecting a flood here as well. I don't know about Makina, I haven't seen him. Why, did he leave BLU?_

Axel would have known who the reply was from, so he didn't bother to leave a name. He rolled the paper back up and slotted it into the bottle, capping it back and placing it in front of the desk lamp for the dragon to deliver back. Slowly, the dragon crawled away from the warm lamp and hefted the bottle into the air again. Horst opened the window once again to make space for the dragon, watching it fly and disappear into the rain. As he closed the window, his crystal eyes drifted to the area below the bridge. Water had risen a lot and it was almost halfway filled up. Oh boy, they were probably in for some big problems soon.

…

The ruins of the building were dark and dangerous in itself, not mentioning that there were stay robot parts lying all around. With their torches lighting up the way, Makina and Medibot explored the ruins. Things and once-familiar places were now barely recognizable, only defined by what used to be there. The lobby in itself was a total mess, and the lift shaft was empty and bare. The lift itself was probably elsewhere outside of the shaft, essentially creating a long fall down to goodness knows where.

The lift having been destroyed and the stairs all blocked also meant they couldn't go back up to Gray's office. Makina wasn't sure if he was relieved that he didn't have to go back up or if he was slightly irritated about it, since if Hale's files were up there they would have some issues with getting them.

The first few floors were still accessible by climbing onto debris that would lead them up, but searching there had returned with no results. _"Come to think about it, Hale's nuts. I've been here a damn long time and I've never seen or heard of any Mann Co documents. For all you know he's just bullshitting us and trying to get rid of us," _Makina hissed. Well, if Hale wanted them gone he would have made them into hats already.

Medibot remained silent at the outburst, simply bending over to pick up robot parts occasionally. Nothing he said would make Makian feel ay better about being there. He didn't want to be there himself. He rolled past a Scoutbot head, its optical lights deactivated and the wires sticking out of its neck frayed. How sad.

As they went deeper into the factory floor the sound of rain got more and more distant, eventually being blocked out by the many walls and doors of Gray Industries. _"Do you even have an idea on where to look, Herr Makina?" _Medibot asked. They had been aimlessly wandering for almost an hour now, and if they couldn't find anything, they might as well have just left instead of hanging around any longer. The eerie feel of the place put him at an uneasiness that could only be solved by leaving.

Makina shrugged, planting one foot against a locked cabinet and grabbing into the handle. He forced it open with a sudden jerk and stumbled to regain his balance, before crouching to take a look inside. Once again he was disappointed by the lack of any documents of any sort.

"_I'll be greatly honest, no. I don't have an idea. Like I said, Saxton Hale could be calling our bluff," _Makina said. He stood up and regained composure. _"Let's go check the file room. There's definitely got to be something useful there."_

The file room was probably the main source of information. It was always heavily guarded with a very elaborate security system consisting of two Heavybots, one Soldierbot, a metal door with a lock, another metal door with a code, and all files were in cabinets that required a thumbprint to open. Hopefully the doors were destroyed and if needed, they could always shoot the cabinets open.

They began to make their way down to the file room, getting lost several times and making wrong turns. Everything seemed so different, now that things were destroyed and paths were blocked. They had to return to the main lobby and walk again to be able to get back on track.

There was an odd metallic sliding noise as they passed the lift empty lift shaft. Maybe they shouldn't have walked so close to the open lift shaft, because suddenly a Soldierbot leapt out at them, barrelling them down the lift shaft. Guess the old bots still recognized them as hostile.

Down they went, falling down the seemingly endless lift shaft. It was a long drop, makina Makina wonder how the lift went down so far when they only had so many floors. They crashed into several loose plates at the bottom of the shaft, their weight forcing the plates and bars below to give way. As soon as they were past the bars, the darkness of the shaft opened up to dusty, hard ground and they crashed right into it, their systems both shorting out on impact.

…

_Startup sequence activated. Systems rebooting. Your system shut down because of an error. Would you like to restart processes?_

_Yes yes yes. _Damn, that startup sequence was irritating. Medibot's optics brightened up again and he sat up, pausing for a moment to let his processes run properly again before dragging himself up properly. What a fall. The scratched bot looked around, surveying his surroundings. The ground was just hard, cracked dirt with cement panels all around.

Above rocky walls with rooms extending out of the cliff sides reached upwards so for far that eventually they faded into mist. There didn't seem to be any visible exit and the place looked trashed. How long had this been sitting here? How long had Gray Industries have a giant chasm below the factory floor, hiding, waiting for someone to find?

Medibot bent down to haul the pile of metal that was Makina. It seemed like his systems weren't automatically rebooting, so he'd have to force a startup. He flopped the bot over and opened the panel on his back, finding the power button. He activated it and closed the panel again, shifting back to let the bot start up properly.

Makina got up once his systems were powered enough, and he got up, scanning the area. _"Well. This is… new," _Makina mused.

There was no wind or any draft of any kind down there, and the place looked complicated to explore. Who knew how big the area was? What even went down here? Makina scooped his rifle off the floor, handing the Medigun back to Medibot. _"No use staying here. I don't know what we're up against but we better start moving," _he said. He turned towards a gate that led down a slope to what was probably a little door and began to walk, glancing back to make sure Medibot was following.

While walking, he put the rifle scope to his eye and looked up, scanning the areas above. There was the occasional door and platforms with broken barriers, but probably not accessible. From what he could see, Makina made a guess that there was more to the building inside. They just needed to find out how to get into the area.

They passed broken pipes leaking murky water and debris. Obviously the area had long since been abandoned because nothing looked liked it had been touched in at least ten years. _"Gray's been hiding this from us all this time?" _

Medibot shrugged. _"If you zhink about it, not really. If he hasn't been down here in years zhen zhere's nozhing to hide and he just didn't want anyone to bozher vith it. Unless things here are still functioning under his order zhen yes, he vas hiding it. Maybe zhis was zhe old Gray Industries." _Right now he was just glad his wheel was made to overcome rough terrain, because the paths here were horrible to cross.

"_I don't mean to doubt you or anything, Medibot, but why would Gray Industries be underground? I'm guessing this was part of some secret area he never wanted anyone to see. But it's just a guess. We'll probably find out more about this place later," _Makina said.

They had come to a door. It was a rather normal looking door with no lock or anything. Just a simple push handle, but there was no telling what was beyond. The Sniperbot turned back to give Medibot a look. The healing bot nodded, and Makina returned his gaze to the handle. Slowly, he placed a hand on it and pressed the handle down. There was no resistance and the door swung open, revealing a dimly lit hallway. It probably led further into whatever building was hidden inside the rocky outcrop.

Makina pushed the door open wide enough for them to enter and began to walk. As Makina walked ahead, Medibot left a single robot part by the door to keep it open in case they had to make a quick escape. The door was left ajar, prevented from closing by the piece of metal wedged between the door itself and the doorframe.

The hallway was short and opened up to a stairwell. Since Medibot was incapable of climbing stairs due to his lack of proper legs, Makina had to haul the bot up. _"Dammit, you're a lot heavier than human mercenaries," _he grunted, having to use extra power to haul the bot with him.

"_In case you've forgotten, Herr, I'm made of metal. Not flesh and bones vhich essentially are a lot lighter," _Medibot reminded. At every floor Makina paused to check the doors. Three of them were locked and he had to keep going, until the four door opened up.

Beyond the door was a single platform with a broken barrier that opened out to a long drop onto the ground below. Guess that door had extended to outside the rocks. The broken barrier bent outwards, curling in such a way that told the two bots that someone had crashed through the barrier and went falling down onto the ground below. Nasty.

From the platform they could see the area before them. It was a vast expanse of ground at dipper away into black water. A platform stood in the middle of the water, rising beyond it. Gentle waves lapped at the sides of the platform, and in the middle of it stood another separate building laced with glass windows. Makina raised the rifle to his optical lens and scanned the inside quickly.

"_Anyzhing of interest?" _Medibot asked.

"_It seems to be some kind of lobby area. There's a reception desk and all, and it sure as hell looks a lot better than what we're standing on now. We should go check it out." _He paused, realizing that the platform was surrounded by black water. He sure as hell was not swimming in that. Medibot noticed the same thing because he considerably backed up from the platform.

That building couldn't just go unexplored. Makina scanned the area for any means of getting across the water and his sensors landed on another platform, suspended by sturdy steel. There was a gap between the suspended platform and the one had was standing on now, but it looked small enough to be able to jump across.

Without thinking, the bot backed up a bit, tightening the scarf around his neck before sprinting forward. He pushed himself off the ledge and towards the other platform, landing with a crash of metal against metal. The platform shook a little, but it didn't creak under his weight or anything. Turning back, he curled one hand around the steel suspension cable and leaned forward a little. Medibot didn't seem as confident about it.

"_I'll catch you," _Makina called across. Medibot nodded and backed up against the wall, letting his wheel run a bit. It scraped against the platform, but Medibot prevented himself from going just yet till he had built up enough speed. Once it was enough, he let himself speed across the platform.

The platform seemed to rise so that he couldn't grab onto it and he panicked, scrambling for a grip. Makina lurched forward and grabbed his friend's arm in time, securing a grip. The hand around the suspension cable tightened as well and he pulled back, dragging Medibot onto the platform.

"_You are insane and I will never do zhat again," _Medibot snarled. _"I would have brought zhe Quick-Fix if I had known we vould be hurling ourselves off platforms." _Makina gave a shrug and continued down the platform that extended all the way to above the floating area with the building.

From there it wasn't a far from, nothing they weren't used to. Makina sat down on the edge of the suspended ledge and leapt down, Medibot following suit. Standing in front of them now was the 'lobby' building.

Makina stepped up to the door, surprised when the sensor actually worked and the door slid open automatically. They entered the lobby, walking on the carpeted floor. The lights were busted and the chairs flipped. The table was chipped and scratched and the wallpaper peeling. _"Vhy vould zhey even make a reception lobby in zhe middle of a floating platform no one can get to?"_

"_Beats me. This is ridiculous." _Remembering what he had actually returned to Gray Industries for, Makina began to raid the drawers and cabinets. The sooner he found those files Saxton Hale had asked for, the sooner they could go. But just how many files were there? Were they expected to comb every inch of the place for some stupid documents?

Medibot assisted in the search for the papers, heading into the back room through a glass door. A rat popped out from under a cupboard and ran out, squeaking in terror as the bots disturbed its home. That was one other form of life, at least.

The search returned with no results except an even more trashed room, and now they had to find a way to get back to the walkway on the cliff side. _"Ve are not swimming back," _Medibot warned.

"_I know, I know. I don't want to do that either," _Makina agreed. He searched the room again, maybe there was some exit route. As he walked, he realized that one of his foot steps sounded more hollow than the other. Odd. He walked back, tapping on the floor. Sure enough, one of the panels below was hollow. He pulled the dust laden carpet aside and felt around for a grip, pulling away the floor panel to reveal a staircase.

Medibot sighed. _"You're going down zhere, aren't you?" _

Makina nodded. _"Do I look like I want to swim?" _He began to head down, lit only by the light of his torch and leaving Medibot to follow behind. Hopefully it would lead out elsewhere. Maybe it was an underground passage to go back to the side walkway.

It was a bit a walk, guided only by flashlights, but true enough, the walkway did open back up to the side. _"I have a feeling there's nothing here. We'll go back and try another building. This place is fucking huge and there's a lot to see. Let's go. We might have better luck elsewhere," _Makina sighed. At least they had covered one area, but who knew how big the entire place was? It certainly went a good distance upwards, and for all they knew, it could span for miles.

They were definitely in for a long time down there.


	4. Chapter 4

Time was starting to become of irrelevance to the two bots. With the chasm leading so far up that it faded away like mist, there was no telling the time. It was probably still storming anyway so the skies wouldn't be of any help to them. The sound of rain had long since been blocked out by the thick, rocky walls of the underground chasm, leaving behind only the slosh of water from the platform behind them and the faint echoes of their footsteps that faded into the air.

Slowly they had picked their way back to where they had come from, the dark hole where the lift shaft ended hanging above them. It was like a silent mockery. A clear exit, right above them, but with no way of being able to go up that exit. How stupid.

With nothing but rusted pipes and cement panels around them, the bots went in the opposite direction, heading towards a series of rundown buildings. They needed to find some place that led further in, and maybe from there they would be able to find a map of the area and another exit, if there even was one.

A single, non-functioning conveyor belt led them down to the buildings. Most of the doors were blocked by some form of debris, except for one on the far left. Surprisingly, the lights inside were still functioning.

As they entered the building, a ghostly howl echoed behind them. They paused, staring back out at the messy place. There was still no sign of life around them. _"Probably cave noises," _Makina said, dismissing the subject. He disappeared into the building, Medibot following close behind.

The lit path was a lot longer than the previous one and instead of leading to a stairwell, it opened up to a room. Well, wasn't that progress now. The room was equally as trashed as the scene outside, chairs and tables flipped, computer screens cracked and smash… bloodstains on the walls. Blood?

"_People have been here," _Makina noted. There wasn't a single corpse, however, and the blood was brown and crusted over, not red and fresh. _"A long time ago. I have a hunch about what this place is, or used to be, at least."_

Medibot gave him a quick glance, a silent gesture to explain.

"_I think this is where Gray Industries started out. When people had to work to make the first prototypes of bots. Gray didn't always have bots to do his endless work for him, he needed to start somewhere. And I think this entire facility is it. This is where the industry first began. It's just a theory though, this place might be something else," _Makina said. He didn't know a lot about the history of Gray Industries. Gray always told him it was unnecessary to know.

Medibot nodded, considering the theory. _"It seems like a reasonable theory. Ve'll find out more about it as ve go along." _There was a door at the end of the room, with two lights above it. One was red and lit, and the other green and dull. So there was some kind of activation to open the door.

While Medibot rolled over to take look at the door activation system Makina did a quick check for any Mann Co related documents, with no results. He moved over to the door where Medibot was fiddling with a flip switch.

"_Well?"_

"_Well it seems like somezhing's wrong vith zhe switch. Every time I flip it it doesn't do anything and just returns to normal. Eizher zhat or zhis switch isn't even linked to the door."_

Makina eyed it for a bit, before nudging Medibot aside. He stepped back, raising his rifle to point at the switch and fired. The switch shorted out, sparking with electricity before fizzling and smoking. He turned his gaze to the lights above the door. Still nothing. So maybe shooting every lock and switch wasn't a good plan.

Medibot gave him a look before rolling back to the door, experimentally pushing on it. The door didn't budge at all. Great so they were stuck.

Giving another glance back at the room, Makina noticed that the room was essentially rather bleak. It looked like some kind of office room, with old computers at the desks and phones with their wires cut and a clock on the wall that had probably ceased to function years ago. Dust lined every possible item. There were panels with computer screens and a projector that wasn't on, hanging only by several wires now. And still there was no visible exit except for the locked door.

Makina grabbed onto the handle of the door and shook it a bit. Damn the stupid thing wasn't working. He sighed, stepping back a little. He reared up a leg and smashed his heel into the door, and surely, it shook under his weight. Okay, one more time and the door should break. He reared his leg back again and smashed his heel into the handle again. The door caved under his weight and swung right open, slamming into the other wall.

Brilliant. Makina peered outside. The door had opened to another pocket in the caves, a security gate and a construction lift at the end of the cave. The ground was laden with cement panels to smoothen out the rocky ground as best as possible, with another room to the right of the building the had left. It seemed the area was much bigger than they had expected.

The two bots wandered from the door, letting it close behind them. _"So, where do you want to explore first?" _Makina asked. Medibot glanced between the lift shaft and the other room. The lift went up maybe a floor or two, still in view, to a ledge further up that probably led elsewhere.

"_Ve'll try zhe room. Zhere might be somezhing of use inside," _Medibot said. Makina nodded and headed towards the room, visible only by the open door. Inside looked like the previous room, with closed drawers and chairs all over the place. There were some files around, which Makina opened.

His optical lenses scanned through the documents. It was nothing related to Mann Co, and the words were all scrawled in barely readable handwriting. There was something about fixing the cooling system and also something about prototypes, presumably of the robots, if Makina's theory was correct.

He decided to keep the documents anyway. _"Nothing else here. There's some documents I'll take anyway, it might come in handy later." _With nothing else in the room, they made their way to the lift that hopefully would take them somewhere a little more related to what they were doing.

The metal grill they walked on clanged under Makina's footsteps. The lift was behind a sliding grill, waiting to be pushed aside. The lift itself was nothing more than just a small cage suspended by metal cables. It could take their weight, right? The bots were… fairly heavy, to say the least. Definitely more than the average mercenary, seeing as they were made out of metal and all.

The lift creaked a bit under the bots weight as they entered but it held once the weight was balanced out across the tiny space. Rolling the shutter back, Makina activated the lift from the button inside and let it take them up to the ledge above.

The ride was short and it barely took any more than twelve seconds to reach the space above. The cave dipped inwards and opened up to a new chasm, this one looking a bit more developed. The walls were completely straight and smooth like a box of some kind. Around the perimeter of the area was a walkway, opening on the right side. Across the walls was a sickly shade of green painted on, as well as brown stains from years of no maintainance.

With nothing of interest in sight, the bots ignored everything in the open area and followed the walkway, exiting from the open doorway. Ahead of them was a fairly long path, the walking space narrow and only suspended by steel cables like the platform earlier. Curious, Makina peered over the edge. The drop below didn't look too far, but it ended in a fast flowing river of murky water and Makina wasn't going to take his chances.

"_You go first. I doubt this one can take both our weights," _Makina said. He stepped aside to let Medibot roll over to the platform. Trying to ignore the slosh of water below, the bot made it across the platform as quickly as he could. The suspended walkway wobbled a bit and the robot increased his speed, making it securely to the other end where a ramp up let to a small room. From the window that stretched along the side Makina could generally make a guess that it was a lab of some sort.

Makina himself wasn't entirely sure if the platform could hold his weight. He secured the rifle slung across his back and made his way across as hurriedly as possible. Halfway across he heard a creak and noticed the start of the walkway was beginning to slip. Time to run.

He sped across the platform, praying it wouldn't collapsed under his weight. By some miracle, as he stepped up onto the ramp, the platform completely collapsed, crashing onto the rocks below before bouncing into the water, quickly getting swept away by the stream.

"…_Right. Okay, so we have to find another way back later," _Makina said, staring down at the rushing water. He turned, deciding not to harp on it anymore. _"Come on, let's take a look at what's in here." _The door opened with ease and let the bots right in. It wasn't exactly a lab, but there was certainly some kind of testing going on. A row of computers sat before a chamber of some sort. Most of the screens were black, but two of them were on. A surprise, after so long. Instantly Makina was in front one of the screens searching for the mouse. It was hanging by the wire, just barely touching the floor. He grabbed it and pulled it up, setting it on the table.

His sensors went searching for anything of use within the computer. It was incredibly old, with a horribly slow response time. Littered across the screen were several folders, all titled by some code that just included a jumble of number and letters. There was a single folder titled 'Prototype Modules', catching his attention. Makina opened the folder and was greeted with two folders and a text file. The text file was also titled with a series of letters and numbers, but oddly, Makina recognized it.

_S08492_. That number was oddly familiar, but yet, he didn't recognize it. Curiousity sparked within him and he opened the file. The document was filled with nothing but symbols and random letters, no proper text. _"How helpful," _Makina hissed. Medibot came over, peering at the screen.

"_Vhat's zhat?" _He asked. Makina shrugged.

"_That's the thing. I have no idea. By any chance do you recognize the number 08492?" _Maybe Medibot would know something about it. Perhaps it was a date. But what date would have a numbers 4 and 9 together? Medibot scrutinized the number for a bit, before straightening himself up.

_Think think. Where have you seen that number before? "I… oh. Herr Makina, zhat's your serial number. Vell, not exactly, but close. Your serial number is SNP08/492," _He said. Finally, it had come to him. Makina hissed, returning his attention to the screen.

What was his serial number doing inside the computer? He was only a year and a half old. He couldn't possibly have existed when the document was created. He backed out of the file and opened up its details, checking for a creation date. Sure enough the document had been created seven years ago. Seven years ago he wasn't even made. Heck, seven years ago Gray was probably still trying to kill his brothers.

"_Do you have a thumbdrive or something? Anything I can transfer the file to?" _Makina asked, opening up the other two folders. In one was probably over a hundred files, all titled with numbers. Were these all robot serial numbers? Most of them had the starting letter of F, and last he recalled, no class named started with an F.

God dammit, it seemed liked every time they found a piece to the puzzle, the puzzle just got bigger and more complicated.

…

"Dag nabbit dammit!" Engineer hissed. Water had flooded from the sewers all the way up to the first floor of the base. The canals were completely filled and water would soon touched the bottom of the bridge. Already the water levels were starting to rise above and out of the stairwell that led down to the sewers.

Irritated, Engineer packed up his dispenser to move it upstairs. Axel pressed himself against the wall to let space for Engineer as he carried his dispenser up the stairs, before the Pyro went down himself to take a look. The endless rain sure as hell wasn't helping. He felt an odd need to go to BLU. Hopefully they wouldn't attack, he didn't need that in the middle of ceasefire and a storm.

As he hung around the entrance to RED where the fine mist of rain was coming in, carried by the ridiculous winds, he pulled on his mask. Unnecessary, but it was made of rubber and would keep him dry. So would the rest of his suit. Protected from the rain, he left the base. The second he stepped out he could feel the large drops of water hitting his suit. Ah, the hell with it. He ran across the bridge and over to BLU, letting the drops of water roll off his suit as he stepped back into shelter.

No one was around the base, or at least they were all upstairs trying to keep away from the imminent flood. Axel pulled off his mask, wandering into BLU. He passed their Demoman and was blatantly ignored. Well now, BLU didn't really care about people visiting, did they? He was pretty sure if Zack was still around he'd be greeted with a snarky comment and a shotgun.

Soldier had given him a second glance before continuing with polishing his self made medals, which was odd. If it was the RED Soldier who saw a BLU Pyro it was a trip to Respawn from a shovel to the head.

Okay, so BLU really didn't give two shits. Axel found his way easily to the medbay. It seemed their bases were pretty identical. Without bothering to knock, the Pyro entered the office, getting a nonchalant glance from Horst.

"Hallo, Axel," he greeted. He was tossing ping pong balls from his table into a ceramic mug across the room while Schnaps tried to catch each ball.

Axel watched the small game go on for a second. "You're bored, aren't you?" He asked, pulling up a chair. Rain and wind shook the window behind Horst, but he didn't seem to mind, so long the window didn't swing open. He nodded idly, tossing another ping pong ball across the room. Schnap's eyes locked onto the orange plastic ball as it sailed across the room, just hitting the edge of the cup and rolling onto the floor. Axel noted quite a number of orange and white ping pong balls littering the floor on that side of the room, and another bucket full of balls sat next to the doctor's chair.

"My base is flooding, by the way. Water's almost out of the stairs. Also looks like it's going to touch the bridge soon so I might have to camp out here for the night," the Pyro commented. Bored, he reached out for a ping pong ball and from his position, tossed it across the room. It was too strong a throw and it bounced on the cupboard behind the cup, falling to the floor.

"Reminds me, I haven't checked on zhe sewers again. Ah hell, I'll leave Herr Engineer to it. Too lazy," Horst muttered. He tossed yet another ping pong ball at the cup, Schnaps making a leap and knocking it out of the air. "Schnaps, I'm trying to do somezhing here, bitte."

Ball after ball, Horst kept trying to land one in the cup. He'd been going at this for close to an hour now, occasionally having to get up to collect the balls off the floor so he could sit down and throw them again. For a split second lightning turned the entire room white, thunder accompanying it with a massive crash that made Axel flinch. Jesus, how long more was this rain going to go on for?

The sloshing noise from downstairs got louder, and the sound of footsteps got closer to the door. Sniper appeared at the door, the bottom of his pants wet. "Base is flooded now. Ya moight wanna come down and take a look." It took Axel and Horst a moment to decide if the walk was worth it, and they got off their seats.

Sniper led them to the ledge where Engineer usually put his sentry to prevent anyone who decided to come up the stairs. The floor below was flooded over, covered with a clear sheen of water. Sniper went back down, stepping into the water. It rose past his ankles and made the edges of his pants wet.

"Wow. That is… that is really bad," Axel ventured as he stepped into the water himself. He sloshed past Sniper to the entrance where the bridge was barely visible through the rain. The water levels in the canal under the bridge had completely filled up and spilled over. God dammit, whatever was blocking their drainage system was really horrible.

He wandered back in, quickly getting back onto the stairs so water didn't pull at his legs anymore. "Shit, we need to fix this, and we need to fix it fast, or this entire place is gonna flood like fucking hell and we're gonna sink like the Titanic."


	5. Chapter 5

Two days had passed since Axel had fled to BLU and he hadn't left. Outside was far too flooded for him to want to bother going back to RED. His teammates were probably worried sick about him and about to wage a war on BLU to their their Pyro back but he would rather not try wading back in that kind of water.

He had spent the night in the infirmary, just flopping onto one of the beds. Horst ignored him for most of the night, only waking him up once to ask what he was doing in one of the beds then telling him to at least take off his boots if he was going to sleep there.

For the rest of the night Horst didn't bother the Pyro, him falling asleep at his desk again. He was woken up by Schnaps sniffing at him and meowing loudly, insisting he feed her. Tired, he yawned and pushed himself into a sitting position, Schnap's wide eyes burning into him. He could tell she wanted food, from the hard, insistent stare she gave him.

"Bitte, I just vanted to vake up after seven," He yawned. The small digital clock on his desk read as barely half past six, but if Schnaps wanted food, he couldn't deny her, or she'd trash the office as revenge. Defeated, he pushed himself off the chair and dragged himself to the bag of food he stashed away in a cupboard that held only things for Schnaps. Namely toys, blankets, and bags of food.

Schnaps had jumped from the office desk to the shelf by the side of the wall, elegantly weaving her way through books and calanders and Horst's mug that had been sitting there for a couple days already. Her bright amber eyes watched with keen interest, her ears pricking as she heard the dry food clang into her bowl. Excited, she began her non-stop meowing, locking her eyes on the silver bowl that had her name engraved in it in gold. Oh boy, Horst spoiled that cat. He set the bowl before her on the shelf and let her eat in peace, bending down to pick her water bowl off the floor to wash it and give her fresh water.

While Schnaps ate he poured the water in the silver bowl away and filled it up again, placing it back on the floor where it usually was. He wandered back to his table and was about to sit down when he remembered that Axel was present. Maybe he'd go bother him. That seemed like a pretty good incentive, because the doctor found himself by the sleeping Pyro.

He would have done something fairly normal like just poke him till he woke up, but Schnaps's sudden appearance by his legs gave him and idea. He scooped the cat up into his arms and stroked her a bit, before tossing her right on top of the Pyro.

Her paws must have landed a bit hard because Axel was up in an instant, grabbing his side where the cat had landed on him. She sped out of the room immediately, and Axel shot Horst a death glare. "The fuck man?"

Horst shrugged innocently. "I vas bored."

"Bored?" Axel hissed. "You're such an asshole, doc. Seriously. You throw _cats _on people to wake them up?"

"Apparently so, Herr. And I'm zhe 'asshole' who's housing you for now. I could alvays send you out into zhe rain and you can go back to your base…"

Axel sighed, sitting up. "You win this time. But you're still an ass." He yawned, stretching himself before getting up. He flinched a bit as his bare feet touched the cold floor. Quickly he got used to it and was on his feet.

"Still raining?" What a dumb question, it was obvious from the office window and the sound of rain was still strong. Water levels from the night before had risen quite a bit, but the rain had slowed and the water didn't seem like it would rise anymore for the rest of the day.

"Herr, is your team missing you, by any chance?" Horst asked, looking at something outside the window. With the now-lighter rain the bridge was visible, and obviously something was happening down there.

Axel fit himself in the space between Horst and the windowsill, groaning when he saw Soldier marching over with Engineer. The Texan didn't look all too happy about being dragged over in the rain, but Soldier looked ready to murder someone. The two mercenaries of opposite teams could even hear the loud man yelling from upstairs.

"You scum sucking maggots!" Soldier yelled, flailing his shovel in the air. "You un-American idiots think you can just take our Pyro and get away with it? Nothing passes these eyes, you fleabags! I will burn this place to the ground! I will find our Pyro if it's the last thing I do! I will even blow myself up if it means getting our Pyro back!"

Engineer rolled his eyes. "Sol, I'm sure he's fine. I mean, he does know th' BLU doc and he seems like a nice fella so I don't think he's dyin' or nothin'. 'Sides, Py never really liked being in confined spaces much now did he?"

Axel gave an irritated sigh. "I should… I should probably go down to make sure Soldier doesn't blow this place apart. Sorry, he's a bit of an idiot himself, despite what he says about you guys." The Pyro left the office, the door swinging shut behind him.

Soldier was arguing with the BLU Sniper at the base entrance, both of them almost knee deep in rainwater.

"Move it maggot, or so help me I will crack your pathetic skull open!" Soldier threatened. Engineer was behind him, really hoping a fight wouldn't start between them.

Sniper sighed, casually leaning against the doorframe. He didn't even care if he was getting wet with the rainwater spraying in. "Look mate, if he came 'ere on his own he probably doesn't wanna see ya. Bugger off. Oi'm not interest in having ta fight ya."

Soldier pushed his face right up to the Sniper, getting an irritated hiss. "You _will _give us our Pyro back or you _will _be blown to bits!" Despite his threats, he didn't actually have his rocket launcher with him. Just the shovel. But he looked equally murderous and blood was going to spill if the Pyro didn't step in.

He nudged the Sniper aside. "Hi Sol."

"Pyro! There you are! Come quickly, we must destroy these BLUs for capturing you and apparently not doing any bodily harm to you!" Soldier yelled, scooping the man up and throwing him over his shoulder.

"Sol, put him down," Engineer snapped. "Y'know Py don't like being touched." Soldier wasn't listening obviously, so Axel kicked and thrashed, but the man's grasp was far too strong.

Irritated, he placed a palm flat on the American's back and let his hand spark with flames. Soldier yelped and let Axel go, the Pyro narrowing his eyes. "Don't. Touch. Me. God dammit Sol, our base is flooded. What am I supposed to do? Wait to drown?"

"Well, technically our base is flood too mate," Sniper chimed in. Axel sighed.

"I'm trying to prove a point here, Sniper."

The BLU shrugged and let Axel continue. "Look, I walked in here two days ago and no one's even paid attention to me. I'm not captured or anything. So run on back to RED or something."

Engineer gave Soldier an _I told you so _face. Droplets of water were still running down their helmets and soaking their shirts. Axel turned to leave, leaving Sniper to talk to them. Engineer pushed Soldier aside so he wouldn't screw things up further.

"Sorry bout that. Sol's a bit…"

Engineer didn't even have to finish. Sniper nodded. "Oi understand. It seems loike all Soldiers are th' damn same. Anyway, ain't loike me ta send ya back out into th' rain so yer welcome to stay if ya loike. Just… make sure he doesn't blow th' place up," he said, eyeing Soldier.

Engineer smiled at the hospitality. Well, wasn't that nice? BLU was offering to let them stay so they wouldn't have to go back out in the rain. The rest of the team would probably end up coming over later to find their team members but problems like that could wait.

Axel had quickly disappeared back up to Horst's office.

"Vell, how vas it?" Horst asked. He was back at his desk, idly combing Schnaps's fur while she sat in his lap comfortably, her paws tucked in under her chest.

"Engie and Soldier's staying over or something, I don't know. By the way, Soldier might just show up because of a burn I gave him for picking me up. Seven years and he still doesn't get that I don't like to be touched. Actually, he might not show up, because of his entire 'un-American' thing and if he does he'll probably make a lot of Nazi jokes so just lock him out or something," Axel said. He sat down, reaching out a hand to stroke Schnaps.

Her fur was incredibly smooth under his fingers, and his hand was maybe still warm from earlier, because Schnaps purred and pressed her head up against his palm. "She's really cute. Where did you get her?" The Pyro asked, scratching her chin.

"My wife Helga brought her home vhen I vas sick. Not sure vhere she vas found but she's grown very fond of me. She's a spoiled princess too." Horst combed his fingers through her thick, soft fur, getting a trill from the pale ginger cat.

"I've always been a dog person, but she's cute. When I was a boy I had this dog, not sure what breed he was, but he was damn cute. He died when I was thirteen, and I didn't get another dog till I got a girlfriend. My ex, really. We had this Samoyed or something, cute, white fluffy thing. Named her Rissie. My ex took her when we broke up and hopefully she's doing good. The dog, I mean."

Horst raised an eyebrow. "An ex, you say? You're not married now?"

Axel snorted at the question. "Nah, I don't have time for a wife or family, honestly. Parents don't care about my job, no siblings, can't be bothered with a girlfriend. I'm perfectly fine being single. Of course if Mann Co happens to hire some girl and she's interested in me I might take a shot," he laughed.

Ah, with Mann Co there wasn't time for a girlfriend. Long distance relationships weren't his thing either. Heck, relationships weren't his thing. His ex girlfriend, now that he thought about it, hadn't been very good. She came home drunk often, shouted at him randomly, and had lots of random mood swings. At least the few times they were happy were nice, and Rissie was always there.

"_Babyyyyyyyy…"_

"_Hm?"_

"_Get me fooooood."_

"_Christina, you're well capable of getting up to get food yourself. It's just in the kitchen."_

"_Nooooooo."_

_Axel rolled his eyes. God dammit, Christina was being so whiny. The past few days she had been really touchy, her mood switching between extremely loving to whiny to super sensitive. Even Rissie, their Samoyed, could sense it, because the dog had been spending more time with Axel._

_When Axel didn't move from his seat, Christina sat up. "Axelllll!" She whined, clutching one of the pillows. Axel's tired eyes refused to look at her, and instead, they were focused on the television screen. He really wasn't in the mood for her shit now. Already that morning he'd been doing everything while Christina went out with her girlfriends to hang and shop._

_Irritated, she threw the pillow in her hands at him. It bounced off harmlessly, but it definitely irritated Axel further. "AXEL!" She screamed._

_Axel got off his chair, whipping around. "God fucking dammit Chris, you're acting like a fucking spoiled child! I'm your boyfriend, not your servant! Honestly, this entire goddamned week I've been doing everything while you just go out and get fucking drunk as hell! Can't you do something for once instead of just going out, spending all your money, then coming back and expecting me to treat you like a fucking princess? Jesus Christ, you're awful!"_

_At that, Christina's face darkened. She herself stood up, her fists clenching. Axel gave her closed fists a condescending glance. "Oh, so now you want to hit me?" He challenged. _

"_You. Are the WORST boyfriend ever!" Christina screamed. "Ugh, none of my friends's boyfriends treat them like this! What did I do to get you?"_

"_I could say the same damn thing back at you, you child. Maybe your friends's boyfriends don't treat them like that, because they're not fucking whiny bitches like you!" Axel retorted. God, he was going to set something on fire. His hands were already sparking and he had to hold back the urge to just burst the damned house into flames. _

_Christina's mouth fell agape and she bent down, swiping her wallet from the table. At the same time, she threw the photo frame holding the picture of the day they got Rissie off the table, completely throwing a tantrum. Axel stepped back, watching her with irritated eyes. If only he had kept Rissie closer, because the next thing he knew she had snagged Rissie's collar and was pulling the Samoyed out of the door with her._

_God dammit. The front door slammed and Axel went bolting for it, hoping to be able to get Rissie back. By the time he was out on the driveway, Chrstina had shoved the barking dog into her car and was already driving off. _

"_Fucking hell, Christina!" Axel roared after her. He knew he couldn't chase the car, and even if he did catch up she'd probably just ram the damn thing into him. Well, at least she'd left the house keys behind, so now he had the house to himself. Fuck her. She wasn't worth his time. With the car gone down the road, there was nothing left for him outside, so he disappeared back into the house, trying to keep himself from burning the place down._

…

For an hour Makina had spent his time exploring the files of the computer, trying to decode everything he saw. All the numbers, they had to make sense. Frustrated, he pushed away from the computer. There was no application that could read the text file with his serial number on it in such a way that it would make sense, no. Everything was just a huge mess of symbols that didn't seem to read as anything. Some were just black squares, others were letters with funny symbols on them and others were just plain weird.

He let out an irritated screech, flinging himself back at the computer. _"Why can't these make sense? Why? What has all this got to do with me?" _He sat down, staring at the lit screen. Medibot was starting to get concerned, maybe they should go elsewhere, search for something else and come back to it later. Makina stressing out over it wouldn't help them.

"_I think ve should, ve should come back later. Zhere's still a lot to explore in zhis place so…" _Medibot trailed off, unsure of what to say anymore. What was there to say? If Makina was intent on staying he likely would have. The Sniperbot seemed to think things through, and considered Makina's idea. He got up, turning off the monitor.

"_You make a point. We'll go see if anything else in this damn place makes any sense." _It seemed like he had forgotten about the documents he was sent to find, and instead now had been absorbed into the mystery of the place itself. He adjusted the rifle across his back and made his way to the other side of the room where a door, hopefully unlocked, waited for them. It opened up with a gentle nudge. Beyond was a platform drilled into the wall, going right to a lift that went down.

Great, down again, right when they were trying to go up. It didn't seem like there was another place to go, so they took the lift and let it take them to wherever it went. The lift stopped right at a wide space. The air above was open yet dense, the floor flattened out with cement. Two large pillars framed the space and held up several bars, as if the area was an unfinished build site. The metal bars suspended across the pillars were rusted and bent, and the pillars themselves cracked and stained with dirt.

The bots tilted their heads up to scan the area. Nothing of interest, it seemed, but at the same time there was an air of mystery that called to them, like there was something to explore further up, if they could just get up there. There was no visible staircase or ladder, or any means of getting up except pulling themselves up by the metal bars, though they weren't sure if the bars would hold under their weight.

Makina gave Medibot a look and the bot shied away. _"Oh no. I am not going to go up there. I have a single wheel, and you have legs." _His gaze redirected to a rope that seemed to hang out from a small dip in the wall. It looked like it led further in, though with the mist that clouded over everything there was no telling. _"You could go up to zhat chamber and throw zhe rope down, then pull me up. Or you can just go on your own and come back later an tell me what you've found."_

Makina's eyes fixated on the rope as well. It was plausible, to go up there and see what there was. He nodded. _"Okay, fine. But I need your help in getting onto the first bar." _Medibot rolled to the base of the first bar, Makina clambering onto his shoulders. He got a grip on the first bar and pulled himself up, swinging his leg over so that he sat across it. With help from the bar above his head, he managed to pull himself into a standing position, and began to shimmy across the thin beam.

Medibot watched with interest as Makina climbed up beam by beam, occasionally having to pause to regain his balance or to make sure the metal bar wasn't going to break under his weight. In little time he had made it up to the top bar, slowly sliding along till he stood in front of the chamber with the rope hanging out it it.

"_Anyzhing of interest?" _Medibot called up. Makina either couldn't hear, or he was blatantly ignoring Medibot. There was no response from the Sniper, but Medibot could see him reach a leg across to step onto the inward ledge. He leaned forward and pushed his body into the chamber, falling flat on his chest.

The chamber was a square space, the rope having been tied to a D ring drilled into the floor of the chamber. It sloped downwards like a slide, but there was no telling what was below. The chamber was lit with dim, orange lights but there was nothing else of interest. What was below, however, seemed fairly interesting.

"_Well there's nothing in here, but there's something below so I'm gonna go down, okay?" _Makina called.

Medibot didn't catch what he said. _"What?"_

"_I said, there's something below so I'm gonna go down!" _Makina yelled. His words were lost again to the wide space, so Makina just gave up and went down. He pressed his hands against the walls and inched his way down, his foot catching onto small footholds and ledges when he could to make sure he didn't have to deal with the drop.

Once he was low enough, he let himself fall through the chamber and land onto the hard ground below. Around him was a wide factory area. It looked very similar to the one in Gray's building goodness knows how many floors up, but everything was older and the machines were bulkier. Finally something of interest.

He got off the floor and onto one of the raised walkways, wandering around for a bit. There was no solid proof of what had been built, but Makina could make a general guess it was machinery of some kind. Drills, saws, and screws littered the floor, some of them broken and others still in one piece. How nice.

Makina bent down to scoop a screw off the floor. It looked comparable to the ones that kept his body together, just a bit bigger and a hell lot rustier.

_Bzzt. _

Makina spun around as he heard a buzz behind him. There was nothing, so maybe it had been one of he machines. Slowly, he wandered towards the source of the sound. It didn't sound again, but he wanted to just be sure he wasn't imagining things.

_Bzzt. _

He was on the right track, because on the floor, hidden under a box, was a head. A robot head.


	6. Chapter 6

With Soldier and Engineer now staying at BLU, Axel was finding it harder to relax with them around. He was worried they'd fuck something up. Correction - he was worried Soldier would fuck something up. He knew Engineer had the brans now to screw around but Soldier was a bit of a nutcase and that concerned him.

Already several times he had decided to enter BLU's rooms and had gotten a death threat from the Spy if he dared enter his room again. Engineer did his best to reign the stupid man in and try not to get them into trouble, but it seemed like Soldier was insistent on making his time at BLU a difficult one.

Axel found him rummaging through their fridge and stuffing his face with frozen bacon. Sighing, he leaned against the wall and cleared his throat. Soldier immediately turned around to look. "Hello, Pyro!" He said through a mouthful of frozen bacon.

"Sol, if you're going to steal bacon, at least cook it. At the very least be civilized enough to know _that. _He very well knew that BLU would be able to smell the bacon when it was cooked or hear it frying, but he thought it would be funny to see Soldier get into trouble.

"Listen here you English maggot, I am American and I do as I please!" Soldier snapped back. He shoved another strip of frozen bacon into his mouth and chewed it, making Axel wince. Damn, that was nasty.

Axel didn't even bother reminding Soldier he was only half British and the other half was American. Countless reminders had gone unnoticed or blatantly ignored so there was simply no point in trying to remind him anymore.

Nonetheless Soldier got out the frying pan and tossed it onto the stove with a clang. He shook the remaining strips of bacon out of its package and onto the pan, suddenly realizing he had no idea how to turn on the stove. He wasn't keen on asking Pyro, but the fact that he had paused and hadn't gone on to lighting the stove told Axel he was having some problem.

"Go on," he prompted, "light the stove." Soldier glanced between him and the unlit stove with its frying pan and cold bacon on top. Axel raised an eyebrow, giving him a contemptuous look. So he couldn't light the stove, could he? "You can't light it?"

Soldier shot him a nasty glare Axel could feel even though Soldier's eyes were hidden under his helmet. "Firecracker, I do know how to light a stove! I just need time to remember because my brain is used for more important things like murdering people like you!"

Axel chuckled. "If you know how to, go on then." He gestured to the stove, giving Soldier a smirk. Soldier reached for the stove, beginning to fiddle with every knob and button in a poor attempt not to show to Pyro that he was indeed incapable of writing the stove. His fiddling went on for a good ten minutes when Axel sighed.

He nudged Soldier aside and turned on the knob, before letting his hand spark. The gas ignited into a lovely small flame, heating the pan up quickly. "There. Enjoy your bacon," Axel said. He himself decided to go practice some magic away in a private space, which, come to think about it, was absolutely nowhere. He could have gone up to the roof if it hadn't been raining but the storm had barely lightened over the few days. Water in the base was now up to waist level so everyone had shifted to the second floor. Even Sniper had gone out to drive his van onto higher ground so it wouldn't get flooded.

There wasn't a lot of very private spaces in BLU and honestly he didn't need the rest of BLU knowing what he was capable of. He just needed some time to sit, be alone, and do his thing. Horst had left his office to take a shower, so the medbay was rather empty and quiet. Schnaps was still in there, sleeping on his chair, but at least it was quiet. He slipped back into the medbay and took a seat, twirling a flame around his finger.

The wamth must have attracted Schnap's attention, because she woke up, yawning and sitting up. She gave a curious meow and watched the orange flames dance with such life. "Huh." Experimentally, Axel created a little dragon for Schnaps to play with. Maybe she'd like one as a playmate, since there wasn't much but some toys to play with in the medbay.

Schnaps began to chatter as the dragon bounced towards her. Oh, what was that lovely orange thing? Could it be eaten? Was it meant to be eaten? Moths could be eaten, so why couldn't this orange thing? She stood up, her tail raising with excitement. It swam in the air around her head, and she kept her eyes locked on it. Once it got too close, she reached her head out and tried to bite it. It pulled away just in time, beginning to sail away from her.

No, come back! Schnaps leapt onto the table in an attempt to get closer. It had landed on the desk lamp and was watching Schnaps carefully, as if it was daring her to go up to it.

Axel watched with amusement as Schnaps crept up to the dragon. She wiggled her haunches, ready to pounce, but the dragon took off first, leaping into the air. Schnaps sat up, irritated that she had missed. The dragon began to make its way for the door of the office, hoping someone would come in. Horst just so happened to come in, and the dragon sped out of the door. Schnaps was determined to keep her toy, because she went sprinting out as well.

"Vhat- Schnaps!" The pale orange cat had gone down the hallway and disappeared already, leaving Horst to chase his cat.

…

Makina bent down to pick the robot head up. It looked nothing like any of the bots he'd seen before, not even the prototype ones Gray had occasionally messed around with. The head was incredibly bulky and heavy, and it resembled more of just a metal ball with a mouth and eyes. Makina rolled it over several times in his hands so that its apparent face faced him. Its eyes were red and dull, shielded by goggles of some sort that cast a shadow over the top half of its face.

The wires extending from its neck were frayed, cut and incredibly tangled, so much that it couldn't possibly be used any more. Its jawline seemed to resemble one similar to the Heavybots Gray had, so Makina could generally guess that this was an old Heavybot. A very, very old Heavybot.

"_You are incredibly old," _Makina mused as he turned the head over to take a good look at the whole thing. This was probably what Gray had been doing before upgrading the entire industry to resemble the Mann Co mercenaries. The hunk of metal in his hands was rusted and chipped, scratches decorating the entire surface.

Maybe there were more heads around, heads of the other classes. He turned over the box he'd found the head under and placed it back inside for him to collect later while he went scavenging for other heads. Pulling the rifle off his back, it raised the scope to his eye, taking a look at what was above. There was a clearly marked roof, completely flat, so something must have been above. He would find out how to get up there later and maybe return to Medibot, but he wanted to find another head and try to prove his predictions.

Around the floor was nothing else but nuts and bolts, pieces of broken machinery and all. He searched everywhere in an attempt to find another head or anything resembling a robot, but nothing came out of the search. He returned to the head, taking it out of the box.

Just how would he carry the head with him when he was trying to get to the floor above? There was no visible hook he could attack to his rifle strap, and in all honesty it was a really heavy piece of metal he couldn't just tuck under his arm and take with him.

He unstrapped his rifle again to give a quick scan of the surrounding area, looking for any exit. There was a lift hanging by the wall. It was more of a platform with barriers that was carried by steel cables attached to a pulley system of sorts, probably. Oh well, if it functioned it functioned and Makina wasn't going to complain. He lowered the rifle and slung it back across his back, taking the head with him to the lift.

The lift was activated by a button on the outside, so someone else would have to press it while he stood in the lift. He was pretty sure shooting the button wouldn't work this time and instead it would just get him stuck down there, so he placed the head in the lift and went back to the button. The second he pressed it the lift began to move, and Makina made a run for the lift. He managed to grab onto the sides and haul himself into the swaying metal box before it was out of reach, grabbing the head before it rolled away from him.

He only got up once the lift stopped moving. The gate of the lift opened onto a walkway and Makina was honestly glad to be on solid ground. The whole swaying motion thing was really throwing him off.

Ahead of him stood something that seemed like an old hangar. Well, it only looked like a hangar because of the very silhouette old plane that sat in the middle of. He could barely make out the model of the plane or anything, so he had to feel around for a light switch or something. His hand ran along the wall until he came across a level. Grabbing into it, he pulled it down and the lights hanging by thin wires above flickered on, creating a soft buzzing sound that echoed around the room.

The plane in the middle of the room was an old model, something that came from the 40s, at least. It was coated in several generous layers of dust and the window was barely see through under all the dirt that had collected on it over the years of abandonment.

Makina wandered up to the plane, though he wasn't exactly willing to touch it. Dust had a nasty effect of slowing his systems if it got inside his cooling system or something. He could barely make out red paint on the side of the plane. It was no war plane or anything, just a simple single seater plane with two sets of wings, one that sat across the top of the plane and the other supporting the bottom.

The plane probably hadn't been looked at in ages, much less flown. It probably didn't work or anything, but if this was a hangar, maybe there was an opening, much like the hangar Gray had in his factory above.

Maybe it wasn't a hangar at all, since there was just one plane and not much else that told Makina it was a hangar of any sort. It could have been just a storage room with enough space for a plane, but there was no harm in searching anyway.

As he walked, he began to notice his feet were dragging across the ground, making an irritating sliding noise as the metal dragged across the smooth flooring. Dangit, was he running out of battery? Probably. The last time he'd been charged as back at Engineer's workshop, and that was some time ago. At least two days or so. Not good. He could have shut down some _slightly _important processes to save battery, like the optic lens lights, but a slightly longer battery life would be at the cost of his sight. Was it worth it? Maybe.

He dimmed the light from his eyes slowly to a point he could still see in the dimness of the so-called hangar, but his battery life could extend by at least another hour more. He needed to find something to charge himself with soon. He continued to search around the hangar for anything of importance, but there was nothing. Just dusty and rusted pieces of metal and the old plane.

Makina had been about to leave, turning around for the lift again when his foot, still dragging on the floor, clanged onto something. He turned back. On the floor by a shelf sat an old car battery, coated in multiple layers of dust.

"_Let's see if you still work," _Makina mused. He crouched down by the battery, swiping the dust away. Even in the dim light of his optical lenses, he could see the tiny particles floating around in the air. With a pair of jump cable he found sitting on the shelf, Makina managed to attach himself to the car battery.

For several minutes nothing happened. Makina had been about to disconnect himself and go when a very faint charge began to flow from the battery. Great, so it did work, but barely. It probably wasn't worth it to sit with the damn thing and wait, and his battery could probably last long enough to find a way back to Medibot. He stood up, pulling off the cables and tossing them aside.

Oh well, back to Medibot. If his battery didn't fail on him first.


End file.
